Duncan leaves no doubt about his commitment to the intellectual and the bestial traditions of werewolves and vampires, for...
Werewolves and vampires are again at each other’s throats.
This sequel to Duncan’s The Last Werewolf (2011) follows the life of Tallula Demetriou, one of Jake’s lovers. Her mother had always told her she’d been a “Very (pause) Bad (pause) Girl,” and in this story she continues to follow her wicked ways, for after all, she’s a self-acknowledged “agent for the forces of darkness.” Early in the novel she discloses that she’s pregnant and being cared for by her friend Cloquet. For convenience, they’re keeping Kaitlyn, a young woman, in the basement for when “the Hunger” strikes, but on the night of a vampire attack, Kaitlyn finds herself freed in the confusion and Tallula gives birth to a son, quickly stolen and whisked away by the vampires. But wait...Tallula unexpectedly has a second child, a fraternal twin she names Zoë. In a bow to the plot of his previous novel, Duncan again resurrects the World Organisation for the Control of Occult Phenomena, a group that is once more realizing that they’ll be putting themselves out of business if they do in fact track down and kill all the werewolves. Walker and Mikhail, a couple of rogue agents formerly with WOCOP, introduce Tallula and Cloquet to a mythic book of vampire lore that predicts the return of Remshi, a kind of vampire deity who’s expected to return and inaugurate an age of vampire ascendancy. The Age of Remshi seems prophetic indeed when rumors spread that vampires are now beginning to walk in daylight. Through Tallula and her ilk, Duncan reacquaints us with the extreme notion of the Hunger, which is inextricably linked to both sex and violence, libido and id.
Duncan leaves no doubt about his commitment to the intellectual and the bestial traditions of werewolves and vampires, for he sustains a tone both brainy and vicious.Pub Date: July 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-59509-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.
In this new novel by Haig (Reasons to Stay Alive, 2016), a man of extraordinarily long life deals with a painfully ordinary question: what is it we live for?
Tom Hazard, though he has gone by many names, has an unusual condition that makes him age exceptionally slowly—he's more than 400 years old in 2017 but looks a mere 40-something. Tragic events taught him early that his seeming agelessness is a lightning rod for witch hunters and the dangerously suspicious in all eras. For protection, he belongs to the Albatross Society, a secret organization led by Hendrich, an ancient, charismatic man who's highly protective of his members and aggressive about locating and admitting other “albas” into the group. After assisting Hendrich in one such quest, Tom starts a new life in London; he's haunted by memories of his previous life there in the early 1600s, when he had to leave his wife and young child to ensure their safety. He's losing hope that Hendrich will help him find his daughter, who he's learned shares his condition. He muddles through his days until he meets a French teacher who claims she recognizes his face. Unraveling that mystery will lead Tom to re-examine his deeply etched pessimism. Meanwhile, readers are treated to memories of his past, including encounters with Shakespeare, Capt. Cook, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Tom sometimes wallows overmuch about the changelessness of the human condition, and one might be forgiven for wondering why so much time has not done more to heal his oldest wounds. But Haig skillfully enlivens Tom’s history with spare, well-chosen detail, making much of the book transporting.
An engaging story framed by a brooding meditation on time and meaning.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-52287-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
A flight of fancy in time and space which transcribes some incidents which take place on the planet of Mars, there's a literary, visionary quality here and an avoidance of the more mechanistic aspects of this medium. From the first expeditions from the earth in rocket ships, to the first settlements, this projects the war to come in which the earth is almost totally destroyed, and the return to Mars- now a wasted, lonely land, by some of its survivors. None of the complexities of concepts or formulae, this has an imaginative rather than technical ingenuity.
Pub Date: May 4, 1950
ISBN: 0380973839
Page Count: 259
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1950
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